In the art of dispensing, articles have been developed which are coated or impregnated with useful substances intended to be utilized when the article is contacted with a target surface. While there are advantages with having the substance present on or near the surface of such articles, there is often the drawback that the useful substance is unprotected and is subject to inadvertent contact before intended use. Inadvertent contact may lead to contamination of the substance, loss of the substance onto surfaces other than the desired target surface, and/or contamination of such other surfaces with the substance. Moreover, the use of such articles to manually apply a substance to a surface of an object frequently results in exposure of a user's hands to the substance. At the very least such a scenario results in a waste of product and is undesirable from an aesthetic standpoint and, at worst, results in excessive exposure of the user to potentially harmful, toxic, or otherwise undesirable substances.
Other common approaches involve dispensing a substance such as a cleaner or protectant from a bottle or other closed vessel onto the target surface, then utilizing a sponge, towel, brush, or other implement to distribute the product on the surface and, if desired, absorb any excess product, potentially with another implement or substrate. Such practices are commonplace with surfaces such as glass, countertops, and other kitchen and bathroom surfaces. While such practices are widely accepted, they often result in inefficient use of product and/or contact with the substances involved. Moreover, utilizing such an implement typically only provides one type of material surface for use in contacting the substance and the target surface. Applying the substance to the applicator from a vessel at the point of use likewise often results in inefficient use of product and/or contact with the substances involved.
A common approach to cleaning glass or other surfaces, for example, is to spray cleaning solution onto the surface and then wipe the surface with a paper towel. Spraying the cleaning solution usually wastes some of the cleaning solution due to over-spray landing on areas not intended to be cleaned. This over-spray is often undesirable since some surfaces can be harmed by this cleaning solution or at a minimum requires additional surfaces to be cleaned. The paper towel is used to both spread the cleaning solution on the surface as well as absorbing any excess. The paper towel has a difficult time spreading the cleaning solution since it is typically designed to be highly absorbent. To compensate, a disposable paper towel can be made partially saturated making it easier to spread the cleaner. This however typically makes the towel weaker due to a paper towel's lack of wet strength. Then a separate dry paper towel can be used to buff the glass dry and to absorb any excess cleaner. This approach requires more cleaning solution to be applied and requires more paper towels than desired. To compensate for this approach some consumers use newspaper quality paper or low absorbency paper towels. This type of paper has a lower absorbency level and naturally does a better job of spreading the cleaning solution instead of absorbing the cleaner into the paper towel. Also these types of towels have a stiffer and harder furnish which tend to aid in buffing the glass to a streak-free shine. However, this approach is less desired because special paper towels are required and a lot of buffing is required to get the desired end result.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an applicator for applying a substance to a target surface that permits greater control by the user during the application process.
It would also be desirable to provide such an applicator that permits the user to apply a substance to a target surface with reduced messiness and waste of the substance.